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IBM: Cloud-based Disaster Recovery Is Catching On

While the examples may be far afield for North American partners, IBM Corp. says its cloud-based disaster recoveryservices are catching on with enterprises and solution providers, a welcome sign for resellers that the technology is gaining mainstream traction.

IBM officials touted the adoption of itsSmartCloud Virtualized Server Recovery (VSR) by three significant customers in India as proof that cloud DR is ready for prime time for users that need a fully managed, robust cloud-based disaster recovery solution with fast restoration capabilities and minimal data loss in just about any real-world disaster scenario.

Not surprisingly, the cloud-based disaster recovery customer wins are coming in India, where cloud technology is seeing significant enterprise uptake for its ability to drive agility and ease integration across multiple business functions and operations. The new VSR clients include Servion Global Solutions, a Customer Interaction Management (CIM) solutions firm; Synthite Industries, among the world’s largest spice and natural foods manufacturers; and Luminous, a power back-up solution provider.

“It is important for organizations to have a strategic approach to business continuity and resiliency,” said Lingraju Sawkar, director of integrated technology services for IBM in India and South Asia. “In the event of a disaster, a physical recovery approach may drastically increase the risk of data loss while significantly increasing recovery time as well. But the IBM SmartCloud VSR cloud-based disaster recovery solution leverages advanced cloud tools to help enterprises improve business reliability with remote server recovery flexibility.”

Launched in January 2012, the IBM SmartCloud VSR solution is a fully managed cloud service sold under a subscription model. Key features include its ability to back up both traditional and virtual IT environments to a security-rich, hardened data center using IBM’s mulch-tenant cloud architecture. Available on Microsoft Windows, Linux, and AIX platforms, VSR includes a security Web portal for self-management and provides for automated provisioning to minimize manual errors and speed repeated implementations.

VSR’s cloud-based disaster recovery capabilities are proving to be a boon for users.

“The need for uninterrupted business operations has become crucial for us to ensure enhanced customer engagement and protect critical business data”, said Chander Khanduja, CIO at Luminous in New Delhi. “IBM’s proven expertise in cloud based virtual recovery, assured us of a highly resilient infrastructure that helped us mitigate downtime risks. The subscription-based pricing model provides costs benefits as well.”

The success of such services is of interest to solution providers everywhere who are looking to the cloud as a vehicle to create unique services and intricate service bundles that build out backup and recovery portfolios. A recent MarketsandMarkets report projected the cloud storage market to reach $46.8 billion by 2018, at a CAGR of 40.2 percent.